Long after Tad Boyle had finished talking at the Colorado basketball recruiting luncheon in 2011 and the room had cleared of all but a handful of workers and media members, former University of Colorado athletic director Mike Bohn stayed behind helping the cleanup crew clear tables.

It was not typical of an athletic director at a Bowl Championship Series-level school, maybe any athletic director for that matter, but it was nothing unusual for the fifth full-time AD in CU history. Bohn was not afraid to stray from the conservative well-worn path followed by many of his peers.

Bohn's eight-year tenure ended this week when he submitted his resignation after Chancellor Phil DiStefano informed him he planned to hire a new athletic director and offered Bohn reassignment within the university.

Opinions vary on Bohn and his track record leading the Buffs, a program he grew up rooting for as he came of age here in Boulder.

For some it begins and ends with the failures of the football program under his leadership. For others, Bohn will always be the AD whose tenure was scarred by football but also the man who led the school into the Pac-12 Conference, rejuvenated the basketball programs, brought women's lacrosse to Boulder and started the Pearl Street Stampede tradition on autumn Friday nights before home football games.

Bohn has a booming voice to match his passion and energy. He has an unconventional and inclusive style. One of his first acts as AD back in 2005 was changing the doors to his office from solid wood to glass so that everyone would feel welcome. Regardless of the opinions, Bohn is an original in the way he went about the job.

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"He never said 'no' to speaking to a class on campus, doing an interview for a student project, or offering advice on the profession of college sports," his longtime chief of staff Gail Pederson said in an email. "His calendar was booked solid day and night with the business commitments of running the department but he always made time for our student athletes and he worked tirelessly because his passion for young people is a priority."

Bohn earned praise for taking risks such as deciding to reward 50 of the most consistent student supporters of the basketball programs with a trip to the 2012 Pac-12 Conference tournament in Los Angeles. Few know that after a disappointing loss at Oregon the week before, he told a reporter outside the locker room, 'Ryan, we're going to win the Pac-12 tournament."

When the Buffs won the tournament, he doubled down and took the students the following week to Albuquerque for the NCAA Tournament.

But there were less public ways Bohn tried to build relationships and improve the experience for those who supported CU athletics.

One cold night after a basketball game at the Coors Events Center traffic backed up as thousands of fans tried to leave several nearby lots and the parking garage at the same time and CU Police were short staffed. Few of those stuck in the logjam had any idea the man in the overcoat in the middle of the street directing traffic was the athletic director.

Longtime sports information director David Plati has served under four athletic directors in his time at CU. He believes each had their strengths and did the job the best they could in their own way. Plati credits Bohn for going the extra mile in being accessible and transparent.

Plati said Bohn held 22 roundtable meetings with the media in his eight years. By comparison, Plati said the previous three CU ADs held a combined total of five similar events.

Plati also noted how Bohn did his best to find ways to connect with the average fan and didn't focus all his attention on those with the most expensive seats or biggest donations.

Bohn would personally deliver season tickets to individuals who had a birthday, were dealing with a illness or in an effort to reconnect with someone who had endured a bad experience with ticketing or at a CU event in the past.

He also cared about the people who worked for him. Plati said Bohn was "often one of the first to visit an injured athlete in the hospital. Heck, he drove me down to Anschutz last summer for a minor procedure I had to have."

Women's basketball coach Linda Lappe described Bohn this week as someone who "rarely took a day off."

Lappe, who was hired by Bohn away from Division II Metro State in Denver in the spring of 2010, enjoyed how Bohn took a genuine interest in the details of her program.

"My Mike Bohnism is after we beat No. 8 Louisville this season, he came over to the office to congratulate us but also to find out exactly what we were trying to do to break their late game press," Lappe said in an email. "Anybody who watched that game, knows we didn't execute like we wanted but found a way to hold onto our lead. We ended up drawing plays on the whiteboard for about a half hour."

Candy Parkhurst worked for Bohn as his administrative assistant helping to organize his schedule and to manage the mountains of paperwork in and out of the office. Parkhurst shared this story:

"Mike was walking by the bike rack between Dal Ward and the Rec Center when he saw a student checking out the bikes," Parkhurst wrote. "Her bike had been stolen a few days earlier and now it was locked to the bike rack. She didn't want to be late to class, but needed to contact the police. One of our student workers, Kristen Conrad, was walking by. Mike told Kristen to call the police and he would wait by the bike until the police arrived and then explain the situation. The student got her bike back because Mike took time out of his day to help her. Definitely Mike."

Jim Senter has worked in several roles in the CU athletic department since joining Bohn's team in May 2006. He is currently the associate athletic director for sport administration and oversees the football program.

It doesn't take long for Senter to produce an example he believes sums up who Bohn was as an athletic director at CU. It's a story Senter has told many times.

It happened not long after Senter was hired in the late spring or early summer of 2006. Bohn and other CU officials were attending an informal event at a golf course with CU boosters and fans. A man approached Bohn and commented that he liked the new CU pullover Bohn was wearing.

"He literally took the shirt off his back or whatever the pullover or garment was and took it off, folded it up and handed it to the guy," Senter said. "The guy was like, 'Hey, thanks. That's awesome.' That was Mike Bohn."

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